We had a good turnout for today’s overheated tournament. I arrived early to do the pre-tournament “lesson”, but none of the RSVP’s showed. Robert T, when he arrived, suggested we move inside since the AC was keeping it substantially cooler there, and so we did. I played some warm-up matches that maybe count as lessons with him and a couple of others as people trickled in. As it hit 1:00, we had 17 players, and so I was prepared to do one play-in match in one bracket; but 3 more people showed up in the next minutes. So we ultimately had 20 players; which I broke unevenly into an 8 person and a 12 person bracket.
In the 8 person bracket, first round had JB over Julie, Kyle over newcomer Leslie, newcomer Jason over newcomer Carrie,and Steve S. over Bob H. Ultimately Kyle won the main bracket over Steve, Kyle’s second tournament win for the year I believe. Bob H fought his way back to win the consolation bracket.
In the 12 person bracket, first round had Max over Bryan, David over Chris (back for his first post-pandemic live event), me over Stevie Ray (who drove all the way from Beaverton only to get stuck by the train a few blocks from the Lucky Lab), Mark A over Robert T, Joel over Aaron, and Bodger over Jesse. My match with Steve was a nail-biter – I won the first game, he won the second, and the third game looked like it could go either way. Second round, I faced off against Bodger – it was a one-game match as the cube ended up on 4. Third round I faced off against Joel. First game, I doubled him out early. Second game, same story, although it was harder to get to that point. Game three, Joel really should have won, but I rolled double-6 twice during the bear-off, and stole it from him. In the final, I faced off against David. Once again, we had a tight match. I took the first game, David took the second, and with how the rolls turned out we did not have the usual automatic double until well into the game. David’s board crunched as I had one of his checkers trapped behind a prime; but once he escaped the race was very tight. Fortunately for me, the doubles came around again and I pulled off the win. In the consolation bracket, Mark A eventually triumphed over Stevie Ray.
Next month we begin the summer series. The tournaments will be a slightly different format – longer matches, smaller brackets, different arenas, and a little more frequency – every other week once we start. Look forward to seeing you all there!
-Mark